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Lightbulb Knitting Moment!

~I don’t know about you, but every so often I’ve had it with all of the “fancy” knitting projects with two circular needles, or repeating patterns, or stand-on-your-head and spin around two times then knit. With the heat I decided it’s time for mindless knitting while watching a movie (ok, a few movies). Time to knit the Plymouth Kimono using their Mushishi yarn that I blogged about on June 13. Summer heat + hot wool yarn + knitting winter sweater = crazy! 😎

Time to wind the first ball, I’ve got such a good rhythm going on the ball winder then – “What the heck?” There is 491 yards in one skein of yarn. The yarn is not a lace-weight. I ran out of room on the winder. 😎 NEVER had this happen before. So, I had to finish hand-winding the yarn onto the ball. I mean, look at the size of the ball! Humongous! And, spinners look at the clubs! 😎 As my spinning teacher says: slubs = $$. Yarn with clubs costs more. 😎

Time to cast-on. I know I’ve mentioned that my FAVORITE cast on is the Old Norwegian Long Tail. It is stretchy so I don’t have to use the “two needles together” trick. The thing is, I really dread having to gauge how long to make the tail. I know, I know, there are all types of tricks out there and I know I’ve tried them all. However, a unique solution popped into my head! Lightbulb moment! When casting on for the Norwegian Star project, we used a two color cast-on method, we also used a similar method for the two-color Brioche Scarf. I decided I’d do the same thing, but just use the one color. This could be done using two balls of yarn, but I just used one. Pull the end out of the middle of the ball and use a slip knot to join to the outside end. Now, just start casting on! When you get to the correct number of cast-on stitches you’ll have to cut off one of the yarn threads. It depends on whether you like to pull from the middle or pull from the end as to which one gets cut. Yes, you will have to weave in the cut end, but geeze this was WONDERFUL! No more stressing out about the length of the tail!. 😎

Ah, cast on was a snap and knitting is a breeze! Another annoyance – the double yarn tail! It kept getting in the way. Got out one of my free bread wrapper thingies and wrapped the yarn around it. Voila! No more hanging tail!. 😎

Knitting life is good. Back to my movies with my mindless knitting–knit the rs, purl the ws. Yes! The bonus? My new family room window! The 100 degree heat did not pour through it! The room stayed coolish. 😎 I felt the window and the sill, both were cool to the touch. Hurray!